André Dhondt

André Dhondt serves as Professor in both the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department and the Cornell Laboratory of Orinthology within Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He additionally holds an administrative position as House Dean in Campus Life.

Dr. Dhondt's research spans ecological population dynamics with particular focus on avian epidemiology. His landmark work began in 1994 when he initiated studies on Mycoplasma gallisepticum conjunctivitis in House Finches, establishing the citizen-science based House Finch Disease Survey. This research program secured consecutive NIH/NSF funding (2000-2005 and 2005-2010) and has produced 45 publications documenting the epidemic's continental spread and ecological impacts.

His scholarly trajectory demonstrates remarkable continuity from early studies of Great Tits' territorial behavior at Gent State University through applied fieldwork with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Madagascar and Somalia (focusing on conservation and pest management), to his 20-year professorship at Antwerp University before joining Cornell.

• Academia Europaea Member (2009)
• Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft Faculty Fellow (2006)
• American Ornithologists Union Faculty Fellow (1990)
• British Ecological Society Member (1980)

Dr. Dhondt directs the Bird Populations Unit at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology where his integrative approach combines field epidemiology with citizen science methodologies. His career exemplifies how opportunistic research on emerging ecological phenomena can yield decades of productive scholarship with continental conservation implications.